Pubdate: Mon, 06 Aug 2012
Source: Creative Loafing Atlanta (GA)
Copyright: 2012, Creative Loafing
Contact:  http://www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1507
Author: Joeff Davis

BUSTED DEA, FULTON DA ANNOUNCE 'UNPRECEDENTED' DRUG SEIZURE

Officials with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Fulton
County District Attorney's office held a press conference this morning
to announce an "unprecedented" bust that resulted in the seizure of
millions of dollars in drugs and cash and the dismantling of a Fulton
County drug operation.

Standing in front of several tables lined with evidence bags, Harry S.
Sommers, the DEA Atlanta office's special agent in charge, said
officers seized nearly 90 pounds of heroin, more than 4 pounds of
crystal meth, $2 million in cash, and guns, from a Gwinnett County
stash house.

Sommers says the drugs were found in two "cavities" hidden behind
drywall and a refrigerator at a house located on Megan Road in
Dulutha=C2=80-. Police arrested three people at the house, two of whom ar
e
Mexican nationals and one U.S. citizen. The discovery of the drugs at
the house subsequently led police to a "safe house" in the metro area
a=C2=80" agents did not specify where a=C2=80" where they discovered $2 m
illion
dollars in cash.

Sommers, who said the use of heroin is a "trajectory of death" and
that the drugs seized yesterday would have "obviously gone into the
hands of children," told reporters at the Richard B. Rusell Federal
Building in downtown Atlanta today that he thinks the drug operation
was connected to "drug cartels in Mexico." Specifically, the Gulf Drug
Cartel.

Sommers admitted that the amount of heroin on the street is
"significantly higher" then it was a decade ago. When asked what the
narcotic's increased availability said about America's long-running
war on drugs, Sommers said that criminals were finding ways of
providing "poison to our children" and that the increased availability
was not a reflection of the success or failure of the campaign against
drugs.

Government reports issued in 2011 said that despite spending billions
of dollars to stop the flow of drugs into the United States, the money
has had little impact. Neil Franklin, the executive director of LEAP,
a group of police officers, judges, and jailers who are calling for
the legalization of drugs, says this type of seizure creates a greater
risk for violence in communities.

"When the police take drugs off the street and make arrests, it
creates a void that will be filled relatively soon," said Franklin,
whose 34-year law enforcement career included positions as a state
police narcotics agent and one-time commander of Maryland's Bureau of
Drug and Criminal Enforcement. "And usually that occurs by way of
violence. The more we push in law enforcement, the more violent our
streets become."

Franklin called the drug war a "complete failure" that has resulted in
street violence, jails filled with non-violent inmates, and the
availability of more drugs. Franklin said that when he was in law
enforcement during the 70s and 80s, drug seizures were much smaller
because they weren't as readily available. Now, Franklin says, after
30 years and trillions of dollars, there are "drug dealers on every
doggone corner."
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